March 23, 2006

Reflections for 3/9-3/22

I enjoyed reading the articles in Educational Technology on Learning Sciences vs. Instructional/Educational (fill in the blank here). As I mentioned in an earlier reflection, this topic was discussed in a full session at AECT 2 years ago, and I remember some of the panelists saying the LS tried to to work directly with theory and cognitive aspects (variables, I guess), and instructional design often did not concern itself with these two thing. I do think, however, that Instructional X does concern itself with learning theories. I think these fields probably represent a continuum from theoretical concepts in cognition and learning to developed models in instruction. I do think one difference is that Learning Sciences seems to be a bit less concerned with testing an applying technology-based innovations. Instructional X seems less concerned with developing new models of cognition and learning. I'll be very interested in hearing what others think. I personally feel that I fit somewhere in between or among several fields - learning sciences, instructional x, management info systems, information science,and performance improvement.

Cassie's chosen articles on the Digital Divide were very interesting. I had not realized that in strictly terms of access, that the gap was shrinking and is now much smaller. However, in a broader sense of technical literacy, the ability to function with the technology and its information sources, and the ability to integrate conceptual work with this technology there are still some fundamental issues and many "littler divides." I believe these issues to be much harder to resolve because just throwing money at the problem doesn't help as much.